The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for processing and handling electrically conductive insulated wire, and more particularly concerns improved handling and transport for wire end processing.
As commercial and military aircraft and automobiles make increasing use of electrical and electronic devices, ever greater numbers of electrical wires and connections are required. Electrical signals are generally carried in such vehicles by wire harnesses comprising bundles of insulated wires routed between different electrical connectors. Such harnesses are commonly assembled prior to installation. For assembly of a wire harness, lengths of insulated wire are cut, ends stripped, and terminal pins secured to the wire ends. Thereafter, individual lengths of wire are transported to an assembly area where the harness is assembled by inserting the terminal pins into multi-pin connectors and laying the wires in bundles extending from one connector to another.
To increase speed of preparation of large numbers of individual wires for use in a wire harness, Artos Engineering Company has manufactured machines for high speed production of sets of identically sized insulated wires which cut the wire, strip ends of a cut wire, and fix terminals thereon. Such machines employ straight lengths of wire stretched from one side to the other of a conveyor table and transported past end finishing stations. The machines are of variable width so as to accommodate wires of different lengths. However, to change from the end finishing of a wire of one length to end finishing of a wire of another length requires the operation to be stopped, and the machine width to be adjusted to accommodate the new wire length. In any event, such machines are capable of handling wires no longer than the maximum machine dimensions, which may be in the order of eight to ten feet, for example, but cannot handle longer pieces of wire. Lengths in the order of twenty feet to well over one hundred feet cannot be handled by prior art machines.
Because prior automatic end processing machines must be adjusted in length for different sized wires, they are readily adapted primarily to preparation of large numbers of wires of exactly the same size. Such machines are not satisfactory, nor economically feasible, where only a few pieces of any given length are required, or where many different wire lengths must be processed.
Automatic end finishing is not presently employed for longer lengths of wire. According to prior practice, the longer wire section is marked as desired, cut to a size larger than needed, and placed in a loose coil. The operator then manually ties the coil and manually places on end first in a wire stripper and then in a terminal attaching machine. Thereafter, the tied wire is transported to a routing table where the finished end is inserted into a connector, the coil untied and passed along the desired wire harness path until the accurate length of the oversized precut wire is determined, so that the second end of the wire may be then precisely cut. This end is then stripped, a terminal pin inserted, and a connection made. The excessive amount of manual handling and processing of such wire lengths is costly, time consuming and subject to increased probability of human error.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to process and handle wire in a manner that avoids, or minimizes, above-mentioned problems.